https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/27/uk/fairford-arrests-uk-raf-us-intl
UK counter-terrorism police are leading an investigation after several men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offenses near an air base used by US forces.
A number of properties were evacuated in the Whelford area in the county of Gloucestershire "following the declaration of a major incident," a police statement said.
"The Army's specialist explosive ordnance disposal team are currently examining a number of vehicles," the statement said
Whelford is close to the Royal Air Force base at Fairford which has been used by US B-1 bombers involved in targeting Iran and is a forward operating location for US Global Strike Command, which is tasked with managing long-distance strikes.
A US air force spokesperson at Fairford - where the 501st Combat Support Wing is based - told CNN: "For operational security reasons we will not discuss specific force protection measures."
The unit "remains vigilant and will take appropriate actions to ensure the safety and security of our US service members, civilians, contractors, and their families," the spokesperson said.
The threat level at RAF Fairford has been raised to Delta. The threat level at RAF Lakenheath, which is also used by the USAF, has been raised to Charlie.
Threat level Delta suggests that there was prior intelligence to the potential attack and there is a large police presence deployed around the base.
As yet there has been no statement attributing the disrupted attack to any specific nation or organisation.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqrm99mm9l84o
UK counter-terrorism police are leading an investigation in which several men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences near an RAF station which hosts the United States Air Force (USAF).
An Army explosive ordnance disposal team has been examining vehicles near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and homes in the nearby village of Whelford have been evacuated while investigations continue, police said.
The men were detained early on Sunday and a Hazardous Area Response Team has been deployed inside a security cordon at the base but officers believe the incident is contained.
The base has been recently used to deploy USAF bombers since the country's conflict in Iran began in February.
In March, four USAF bombers landed at RAF Fairford and the US started using British bases for "specific defensive operations" against Iranian missile sites after then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer granted permission for "defensive" US action from UK bases.
A government spokesperson said Prime Minister Andy Burnham was receiving regular updates on the evolving situation.
A police statement has just been made (13:56 BST):
Three suspicious white vans were reported by a telephone call to be heading towards the Fairford area at 12:45 am
Police stopped the vehicles and have detained 5 men, who remain in custody. They are held under suspicion of committing offences related to the Explosives Act.
The vehicles are being investigated by a military Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.
The police have just announced that the 5 detained men have been further charged with preparation of a terrorist act. [Corrected at 1427BST--JR]
[UPDATE Source: BBC] The police have announced that the 5 detained men are all UK nationals in their 20s.
« Small Undersea Volcanoes May Unleash Outsized Tsunamis | Qualcomm Wants You to Let AI Agents Spend Your Money »
Related Stories
Source: BBC Television.
The UK Police have announced that all 5 men arrested in connection with the suspected terrorist attack attempt at RAF Fairford are UK nationals in their 20s from the London area.
For previous reporting see: https://soylentnews.org/breakingnews/article.pl?sid=26/09/27/115249
The Head of Counter Terrorism Police (CTP) has given an public announcement at 15:45 BST:
The 5 individuals who have been arrested are being released on police bail with significant restrictions on who they may contact, on reporting regularly and movement. They remain under investigation.
They are currently being released while remaining under charges relating to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). No mention was made relating to earlier charges.
The CTP have numerous new leads that they are following. They are keeping an open mind about who might ultimately be behind the attempt. They stress that it must be remembered that individuals may be used as proxies without necessarily knowing who is directing the attempt, or even knowing that they were being manipulated.
The alert states at both Fairford and Lakenheath remain as previously announced.
The Head of CTP stated that the alert was raised by 2 phone calls made by civilians. Nothing was said about any prior intelligence.
The latest statement by the CTP (19:25BST 29 Sep 2026):
No explosives were found in the vehicles used by the 5 men arrested near RAF Fairford. A quantity of vehicle fuel was found. Searches of the homes of the 5 men have not revealed anything significant to the investigation.
Without any further evidence the individuals were released on bail. The decision was based on insufficient evidence to justify holding the 5 offenders longer although they could always be re-arrested if it is subsequently justified, and 'strategic' considerations. The investigation is continuing with close liaison between the relevant security agencies in the UK, and with the US.
Source: BBC (07:01BST 30 Sep 2026)
One of the 5 men arrested in connection with the incident near RAF Fairford had phoned the police (999) himself.
Source BBC Television News: (17:18 BST 30 Sep 2026)
The Prime Minister has stated that the UK now believe that Iran was linked to the attempted attack on RAF Fairford.
The Iranian Ambassador has strongly denied any connection with the incident.
Source BBC Television News: (17:18 BST Sep 2026)
The Prime Minister has stated that the UK now believe that Iran was behind to the attempted attack on RAF Fairford.
The Iranian Ambassador has strongly denied any connection with the incident.
See previous reporting: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=26/09/28/1259254 https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=26/09/27/115249
Source: BBC News: 07:18 BST 02 Oct 2026
The police have confirmed the arrest of a dual nationality (UK/Iran) man in the London area, linked to the incident at RAF Fairford on Sunday.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by turgid on Sunday September 27, @12:44PM
Thanks to the nonsense and belligerence of both Putin and Trump, Europe, including the UK, is being gradually undermined and destabilised. This is yet another symptom.
Slow clap, MAGA.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @12:47PM (23 children)
These third worlders were setting up for another Beruit barracks bombing - or worse. Three vans involved here, it seems.
https://nypost.com/2026/09/27/world-news/raf-fairford-terror-suspects-stripped-down-after-uk-cops-foil-van-bomb-plot/ [nypost.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Sunday September 27, @12:49PM
You can't arbitrarily attack other countries and expect them not to object. There was no valid reason for attacking Iran this time. Imaging those evil Commie Canadians decided to liberate the USA from MAGA and Christianist fascism. Would you sit back and take it?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Troll) by turgid on Sunday September 27, @12:50PM (11 children)
MAGA are delusional [youtube.com]. I mean, completely and utterly detached from reality. Facts became irrelevant to them some years ago.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @07:11PM (10 children)
I'm glad you are amused by the video. Starmer is so far beneath contempt, the old jokes and modern memes don't even begin to describe it. Starmer and the UK and Europe in general. As I said above, import third world, become third world. And the king is no better than Starmer. Today's king is better known as "traitor". https://www.churchofengland.org/media/stories-and-features/why-king-known-defender-faith [churchofengland.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @07:25PM (1 child)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @08:16PM
The truth doesn't change, there's no need to change tunes.
(Score: 4, Touché) by janrinok on Monday September 28, @05:35AM (7 children)
You seem to be unaware of the fact that Starmer has not been the Prime Minister for quite a while now. In fact, he has announced that he is leaving politics altogether. How's President Reagan doing?
I suppose that is better than starting a war and then losing it. I'll have to look for some appropriate old jokes and modern memes....
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, @06:06AM (6 children)
You don't seem to be capable of keeping up with the conversation. I responded to a post, which referenced a video, all about Trump's lack of respect for Starmer. And, I responded that Starmer is beneath contempt. Just like Joe Biden, Starmer threw the borders open and welcomed every vagrant barbarian into his country. Right back at you: How's old Winston Churchill doing these days?
Yeah, I'm forced to agree, a lot of things are better than starting a war, then losing it. Gaza is pretty screwed, isn't it? America certainly hasn't lost any wars recently. Iran is on the ropes, punch drunk, staggering around, and still asking for more. Where is their navy? Air force? Most of their missile launchers are gone, though they still have tremendous capacity hidden under their mountain. And, their nuclear research capacity? How's that doing? Also, how's that inflation doing? Who is getting a pay check in Iran, except the IRGC faithful?
You're not keeping up with current events any better than you're keeping up with conversations.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday September 28, @08:41AM (5 children)
Ah, the old changing the conversation again.
Your comment, to which I am responding, is absolutely nothing to do with the subject under discussion.
All true - but what has it achieved? The same people are still in charge in Iran, the war has resulted in the whole world suffering because of fuel shortages, and restrictions of fertiliser and other exports from the region (not just from Iran itself). Fifteen US bases in the region have been trashed, and significant national infrastructure. And, despite his pre-election promises, you are now stuck in another war with no end in sight unless you back down. How much more will it cost over the next decade or more?
In fact, you have made more enemies and as the UK events have just demonstrated they can to bring the war home to you. It isn't only the terrorists that intelligence knows about that pose a threat, it is the ones that they don't know about. US Servicemen and their families in the UK and across Europe and the Middle East, many of whom live off-base in local communities, will now have to watch their backs to protect themselves against individual attacks possibly for years to come. They will have to remember to check under their vehicle every day. Don't wear uniform off-base, be careful where you sit in bars and restaurants, don't use the same shops each time, make sure you have another way out of wherever you are, be alert when checking the mail for unexpected packages. We saw decades of a similar threat from the IRA. That also poses a risk to our own nationals too. So do not expect any thanks from us for the last couple of years of US mismanagement. The only person who is better off is Trump himself who is increasing his own wealth at the expense of every American.
You have new generations of Palestinians and Iranians to contend with. Good luck.
The problem that you will now face is that you will never know where in the world the next threat will occur and who will be its target. How many will have to die before you realise the mistakes that you are making?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, @01:12PM (2 children)
We expect no thanks. Neither does Israel. While Europe struggles to plant another NATO country on Russia's own borders, the US and Israel continue to fight for the precious democracy you folk claim to love. But serving has always been thankless, so we expect no thanks.
Also, thanks to Joe Biden, we truly DON'T know how many terrorists are waiting inside our own country. If only we could return to Starmer's and Biden's era of utopia, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, @04:04PM (1 child)
The US is not doing this at Europe's request. Trump was conned by Bibi. This is to do with making money - nothing at all with protecting democracy. How does building sea-front hotels and casinos improve the democracy in Gaza?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02, @02:52PM
Europe is too stupid to make the request. The fools running your governments are not interested in democracy, and the rest of you haven't figured that out yet.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, @01:22PM (1 child)
Regarding the "updates" - these are Muslims, and "nationality" means nothing to Muslims. They are still third world barbarians on jihad. A dog is still a dog, no matter what characteristics are bred into them. So you have generations of dogs being bred in London, and Sadiq Khan is happy as happy can be. Terrorists are terrorists are terrorists.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, @04:06PM
where is your evidence to support this claim?
(Score: 2, Informative) by turgid on Sunday September 27, @12:53PM
By the way, you got the Troll mod for the racist trope, just in case you thought I was condoning terrorism and criminality, which I am not.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday September 27, @01:34PM (6 children)
How can you already know who is behind this attempt of terrorism? I agree with turgid that your comment is racist and is not based on any evidence whatsoever.
The only information that has been released is that it involves 5 men. You are speculating. It could also be related to Russia, or to another group of individuals who are acting entirely independently of any other nation.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @07:02PM (5 children)
Islam isn't a race.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday September 27, @07:15PM (4 children)
Who mentioned Islam? Apart from you, that is....
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @08:28PM (3 children)
Go look at the pictures. The five men in custody look nothing like British people. Not Scottish, not English, not Welsh, not Irish. They aren't French, German, or Scandinavian. They are Muslims, doing their jihadi best to help out the Islamic Republic. The proof is found in the fact that the cucks who arrested them did not IMMEDIATELY point out that they were white Britons from SomeWherebyTheSea. Three vans loaded with explosives, so very reminiscent of the Beirut bombings. Muslims love their exploding vehicles. Among non-Muslims, Timothy McVeigh seems to stand alone in that respect. Of course, McVeigh walked away from his bomb - the suicide part of the bombings is pretty much exclusively Muslim.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday September 28, @02:34AM (1 child)
They are nationalities.
This is a religion. You are comparing apples and oranges. There are also British, Scottish, Welsh, English, French, German and Scandinavian Muslims in the world. Just as there are also Arab Christians. You just do not understand the difference. By the way, Timothy McVeigh was raised a Roman Catholic.
As yet, there has been no official confirmation that explosives were found in the vehicles. That will have to wait for further investigation and analysis of the substances found. The existing charges are "Suspicion of ..." the alleged offences. None of them are yet proven, or even established. This is how a legal system should work. There is also no confirmation of any link to Iran, although there is a lot of speculation and it will surprise nobody if it is established to be true.
You are so filled with your hatred of people who are different to you that you cannot even express your feelings in an intelligent way. There are also Christian fanatics in the world, and fanatics and fundamentalist of many other religions. With regards to Christian extremists, America seems to have a fair share of them. Despite your oft-quoted 'freedoms' you personally don't want people to have the freedom to follow a religion of their choice.
Nobody has committed suicide in relation to this event. Nobody was wearing a suicide vest. All 5 men were captured alive. You are not only speculating, you are making things up as you go along. Try analysing and discussing the facts and not fairytales.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday September 28, @08:57AM
Mrs Turgid once had a boss who was a white English Muslim. He used to eat bacon sandwiches and drink pints.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, @03:56PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by number11 on Sunday September 27, @02:39PM
Beruit barracks? How about school full of children? Aside from potential damage to innocent people, should we worry if one group of terrorists tries to attack another group of terrorists?
(Score: 5, Touché) by epitaxial on Sunday September 27, @04:37PM
I see little difference between this and the "friendly tourists" on January 6th.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27, @07:46PM
Pure speculation. But sit in a your vans. When you know or see something large come in for landing or take off you step out with an RPG or two or three. It would probably be like hitting a barn door at close distance. Not sure if the defence systems would even work.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday September 28, @01:47PM (6 children)
By having no American military presence in your country.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Monday September 28, @08:52PM (5 children)
If MAGA wins the next US Presidential elections, and leaves NATO, that will be all but inevitable. For now, the USA is still co-operating in NATO. But we've learned our lesson. We're not relying on the USA any more, we're investing more in our own defence companies, technology and armed forces. Yours will be losing our custom. Sell those stocks before the crash.
American decided that it wanted to be "great" by trampling all over everyone else, including erstwhile allies. Well, these actions have consequences.
One more question for MAGA: why on Earth did you assume NATO should help you with your illegal, immoral war in Iran? NATO is for defence, not for bullying and overthrowing arbitrary countries on the whim of a greedy narcissist.
You did all this while Mr Putin was moving in from the East.
And you lurk around here and try to perpetuate racist tropes, spreading disinformation about the state of European countries, immigration, various religions and so on. You are beyond crazy.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02, @02:55PM (4 children)
Translation:
You're finally growing up. The United States doesn't need clients, we need partners and allies. You don't qualify as either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 02, @07:04PM (2 children)
Let's see how many fucks are given by the rest of the world the next time Pearl Harbor gets bombed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 03, @01:28AM (1 child)
You didn't give a fuck the last time. Much of the world was already embroiled in war, and you really didn't give the smallest of damns about the US. You only cared that the US continued to send the aid shipments. Sadly, the dumbasses in Europe are trying hard to start the NEXT world war. If we have to step in again, maybe we'll come as conquerors, rather than liberators. If you won't fight for your own freedom, you don't deserve freedom. Aloha Snackbar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 03, @08:29AM
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday October 03, @09:05AM
You don't want partners - you want vassal states who will buy what you tell them to buy. Countries who will bend the knee to you and be subservient to you. You had partners, and it wasn't them who threw a hissy fit and started unjustified tariffs.
You don't want allies, you want more military to do your bidding in illegal wars. Trump/Hegseth have made a complete mess of the middle east. Your 'allies' there have all had their own infrastructure damaged, in some cases significantly. Your own bases have been badly damaged too. Only 6 months ago the Straits of Hormuz were open and there was plenty of trade passing through it everyday. Now you have come the the limit of what can be achieved without having boots on the ground. Your own country is paying far more for gas now, is short of fertiliser, is losing trade and allies. So your only options are to consider tactical nukes or to try to get out by admitting that you cannot resolve the war that YOU started.
Trump stood in front of the whole world and stated that he would annihilate Iran and 'wipe if from the face of the earth'. Iran is a country that has existed for thousands of years yet yours only a couple of hundred. But to say so in such blunt terms in front of the entire world is just unbelievable. That doesn't demonstrate power, it is more petulance and ignorance.
Hegseth has said that American forces will 'show no mercy' - you do know that is a war crime, don't you. You cannot attack non-combatants, which includes schools and boats in the Caribbean. He does not answer the questions that he is asked but goes back to his rah-rah-rah claims. Yet Iran is still capable of inflicting damage on US assets and has full control of its waterways.
Not a single piece of evidence has been provided to show that Iran was capable of producing a nuclear weapon. You claimed to have destroyed that possibility last year. Was Trump lying, or was he just wrong?
Your ally in the war, Israel, has been condemned by the UN for genocide. And not content with Gaza it is now repeating its actions in the West Bank. I doubt there are few countries now that view the US a a symbol of freedom and liberty.
And now the US is pulling out of Iraq and leaving a vacuum that will undoubtedly be filled by its neighbor, Iran
Just like you abandoned Afghanistan and now Iraq - entirely forgetting why you and your ALLIES went there in the first place. You don't want allies ....